


Things You Never Said At All

by MrsSaxon



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Cooking, Food, Hannibal does cook things, M/M, Season 2, Will seduces Hannibal AND IT IS A TERRIBLE DECISION, bone marrow, season OF PAIN, season where EVERYTHING HURTS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-18
Updated: 2016-03-18
Packaged: 2018-05-27 10:50:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6281647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsSaxon/pseuds/MrsSaxon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part of the 'things you said...' prompt meme. Prompted by the miraculous openheart_wickedmind</p><p>Bones. Will stared at them. Their message was plain: These are my bones. They are my fruit, I give them to you freely. Eat them, suck them dry, take strength from them. Take strength from me.</p><p>Hannibal could not have been more obvious if he’d cut off his own leg and served it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things You Never Said At All

“Bone marrow?” Will looked up curiously.

“An ancient and traditional dish, hearkening back to the days when food was so scarce we were forced to use every piece of it. Even the bones,” Hannibal set the two servings down at the table. 

Private dinner. Just for two. What could be more cozy.

This was a necessary step, Will had told himself, how could he refuse?

“However, when rendered properly, bone marrow is extremely flavorful and nourishing. I hope to afford you a respectable sampling and that you will forgive me for widening your palate,” Hannibal finished, sitting down himself.

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Will muttered, reaching for his wine.

Hannibal smirked, but said nothing. They had become quite adept at saying nothing to each other, even in private. Will told himself it was easier this way. Nothing in his life had been harder.

He took a fortifying swallow of the wine and pulled his plate of bones and toast closer.

“Are we so starved for food that we need to resort to bones?” Will asked, lifting his knife and preparing the scrape some of the sweet-salty fat onto a slice of toast.

Hannibal paused, considering his wine, “I thought the realness of it would be comforting. It is good to remember where our meat comes from.”

Will did not dare hesitate as he finished scraping the fat onto his toast and lifted the slice to his mouth. He crunched and chewed quietly. At a stretch, this could be mistaken for butter, except the hint of iron at the very back of the palate. His throat did not close as he swallowed, his mouth did not dry.

“It’s creamier than I expected,” he remarked, steadfastly meeting Hannibal’s gaze, only when he chose to.

Hannibal’s lips stretched in his well-worn smile, “I’m glad to hear it.” Hannibal fastidiously spread the marrow over his own toast and savored it in his wide, full mouth.

Will dropped his eyes before his staring became as obscene as the action. He took up another slice and began spreading again. This time his knife hit the bottom of the shallow interior and scraped against the chalky shell, the brittle log that once held a living organism together. The texture was fascinating, the smooth, richness of the life-giving fat and underneath, ivory. 

“It’s morbid,” he commented, breaking the silence as one would break a neck, “digging your food out of the remains of death like this.”

“It is impossible to eat anything while it is still alive,” Hannibal murmured, “even the plants and fungi, plucked out of the earth, they die instantly with no knowledge of what they’ve lost. It’s… more honest to eat out of the shell of something that knew what it was losing, just as you know what you are gaining.”

Bones. Will stared at them. Their message was plain: _These are_ my _bones. They are my fruit, I give them to you freely. Eat them, suck them dry, take strength from them. Take strength from me.  
_

Hannibal could not have been more obvious if he’d cut off his own leg and served it. Will didn’t let himself wonder what that would taste like.


End file.
